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Math Programs by Difficulty


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I haven't tried Thinkwell, videotext or Derek Owens.  And don't know a huge amount about Khan Academy.  But definitely would say that MUS is considered easy and often "too light" by many high school parents.  I tried TT Geometry with DS years ago, we found it more difficulty that MUS.  But also we did not like the format of it at all. 

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I can give pros and cons of two of them.
Khan academy:
-often adds content and makes it difficult to master.
-the blocks do build on each other because math naturally builds, but there is not a lot of review unless you seek it out.
-you must keep track on your own of what was done each day.

Videotext:
-I'm not sure if it's just my edition, but the videos are corny, like produced in the late 1980s corny.
-it slowly scaffolds
-pre-algebra, algebra 1 and algebra 2 are all one course, intertwined.  You'd have to commit to all or nothing.

FWIW, I like videotext.  I don't like that it encourages the student to correct their own work because I think that's something we should do together, but I do like the pace and how it builds.

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VideoText is different from either Thinkwell or DO in that all of algebra is mashed together.  So that might make it more difficult, though I wouldn't know because we ditched it halfway through the first module.  Note that this was 12 years ago.  I've also used Thinkwell, and while the videos are good, the problem sets can be all over the place (the prealgebra problem sets were awful, calculus were better).  I've also used Thinkwell's Algebra 1 videos in conjunction with the Holt/Berger text, and like them, but videos are only a small part of what makes a program good.

I prefer DO overall and have come to believe that his non-honors options for Alg 1/Geo/Alg 2 are frequently approaching honors level when compared to a standard Common Core text like Holt.

I've not used Khan as a standalone course.

I realize that none of this answers your question exactly.

 

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